TopTV relaunch in trouble?

South Africa’s TopTV is seemingly in trouble again. Its owners, On Digital Media, filed for bankruptcy protection (“business rescue”) almost exactly a year ago in November 2012 and over the past months had been in the process of being rescued by China-backed StarTimes Media Group.

On October 15th it emerged that On Digital Media’s exit from business rescue had stumbled. On Digital Media said the launch “has been slightly delayed due to regulatory processes”. But it hopes to still re-launch before the end of 2013. On Digital Media’s shareholders had supported the sale of TopTV to StarTimes.

South Africa’s media regulator ICASA spokesman Paseka Maleka said the regulator “received an application in September for transfer of individual electronic communications network service (I-ECNS) licence from On Digital Media to StarTimes Media” and it was still under consideration.